For now, though, the important thing was Max. He felt his phone vibrate as he rushed back up the stairs, but he ignored it. That it had amazingly survived its dunking was a fact of so little importance that it never entered Cabrillo’s mind. The feel of the ship had changed, and the seaman in him told him the Belle’s captain had slowed so they could turn back for Vicksburg, where every cop on duty would be waiting.

It was going to take some fast talking to keep himself out of prison. The shootings would eventually be proven justified, but there was still the fake ID, the unregistered guns, and the fact that he and Max had lied to customs to get into the country in the first place. This was why Juan preferred to work in the Third World. There, a judicious bribe in the right hands bought your freedom. Here, it tacked another couple of years to your sentence.

Up on deck, people were still clustered around Max, but Juan could see that his friend was sitting upright. The blood had been cleared from his face, and a man was holding a bar towel to the side of his head.

“I’m sorry,” he said when Juan squatted down at his side. “I went to pull Tamara behind me, and the guy just opened fire. One went wide, but the second . . .” He pointed to his head. “I went down like a sack of potatoes. They get her?”

“I got one of them, but, yeah, they got her.”

“Damn.”

“That’s putting it mildly.” Juan’s phone vibrated again. This time he pulled it out to check who was calling. “This can’t be good.”

“Langston, you’ve got lousy timing,” he said to the veteran CIA agent.

“You’re not going to believe what happened about two hours ago.”

Juan had put it together when the gunmen stormed the ship, and said, “Argentina just announced that they’re annexing the Antarctic Peninsula, and China has already recognized their sovereignty.”

“How could you . . . ?” Overholt’s voice trailed off in incredulity.

“And I can guarantee that when this comes up at the UN tomorrow, the Chinese will use their veto power as permanent members of the Security Council to kill any resolutions condemning the annexation.”

“They’ve already announced they would. How did you know?”

“That’s going to take a little explaining, but first I think I’m going to need a favor. Do you happen to know anybody in the Vicksburg Ph.D.?” Cabrillo asked this as the ship’s purser showed up with two goons from the engine room carrying wrenches the size of baseball bats.